Peel House on Edge Lane, a little bit of history

Edge Lane and Peel House in 1853

It wasn’t the biggest house on Edge Lane, but Peel House has drawn me in and something of its history fascinates me.

It was the last big posh place on Edge Lane as you walked into Stretford from Chorlton. It only had nine rooms, compared to the 10 of Edge House, the 12 of Avenhau House and the mansion which was Longford Hall.

But what it has going for it is a wonderful line drawing, made in 1968 shortly before it was demolished to widen Edge Lane which belongs to Laura who has kindly given me a copy.  It was made by S Massey who I rather think will be the same Samuel Massey who wrote a history of Stretford.*

As Laura said  “I love that something as simple a photo or picture can stoke the fires of research” and I have to confess that picture and the fact that she lives close to where it stood has set me off on one.

Now I can’t claim to be the expert on Stretford’s history and I bet there will be someone who wades in to correct me which is all to the good.

But I think Peel House was in place by the 1830s and in 1841 was home to Amos Banister who was 70 years old and described himself as “Independent” which means he had enough to live on and he shared Peel House with Thomas and Mary Norbury and their son and servant.

Mary may well have been Amos's daughter or at least was related because a decade he  was living with them.

By now Amos had passed on and the property was in the hands of Thomas who described himself as an “Inspector of Houses.” And another one of the Brundrett family crops up as living there. He was the 20 years old Robert Brundrett, who was a clerk in a solicitor’s.

Over the next sixty years Peel House was home to a succession of well off families and by one of those nice touches, the resident in 1911 was the jeweller Charles Payne who the artist records as Mr “Payne of Lloyd, Payne and Amiel, Jewellers of Manchester.”

Thomas Street, circa 1900

And their premises spread over numbers 10, 12, and 14 Thomas Street in the very impressive named Imperial Buildings which are still there today on the west side just where the road joins Soap Street in the Northern Quarter.

Charles Payne lived in Peel House with seven members of his family including his daughter, son in law, two grandchildren, a nephew, niece, and a coachman and two servants.

I do share Laura’s regret that I never got to see Peel House, but at least there is Laura's  picture of the house given to her by the previous owners of her home.

But you can still see where Charles sold his jewels which is something I guess, and maybe in the fullness of time I will revisit Peel House.

Pictures; Peel House from the OS maps of Lancashire, 1841-53, and Thomas Street from Goads’ Fire Insurance map, courtesy of Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Walking the Thames

Now I am the first to admit it’s a bit of a silly title but that is exactly what my friend Neil did, once under the river at Woolwich and then again at Greenwich.

It’s not my chosen way of leaving Woolwich for that other place, but Neil had never seen either of the foot tunnels and so it was an adventure.

I have to say that these are adventures I no longer want to do.

I prefer the ferry where I can see where I am going and know that the water is below me and not above me.

I still have vivid memories of that old illuminated sign at the Wapping and Rotherhithe  Underground Stations  announcing  “Men working on Pumps” when I used the Tube regularly in the 1960s to know that over is better than under, a feeling enhanced by one visit to Easington Colliery.

Kay’s father who was Chief Mechanical Engineer at the pit thought I would be interested in seeing how generations of the Baxter family had made their living.

There was no way I could say no to my future father in law, although a mile down and three miles out under the North Sea I wish I had done so.

I last walked the walk when I was ten and have never done the journey since.
I do remember it was exciting.

The floor slowly sloped down there was that echoing sound of your footsteps and the point where the other exist came into view.

So that is it.  I have thanked Neil for his pictures, which have made me a tad homesick but not enough to do that walk.

Location; London

Pictures, the foot tunnels, April 2017 from the collection of Neil Simpson

Another side of the remarkable and popular Manchester photographer Robert Banks

Uppermill circa 1890

Robert Banks was one of those remarkable Victorian self made men, who went from being a woollen piercer in a mill in Uppermill to a celebrated and sought after Manchester photographer who eventually gained the title by Royal Appointment.

Now I have written about him on a number of occasions, but knew nothing of the man or his achievements until my friend Sally began sharing his pictures.

And it would appear few other people knew much about him either and sadly the one book published on his work is now out of print.**

So not deterred by such minor obstacles I went looking for him and as you would one of my first ports of call was Uppermill and the Museum at Saddleworth.

And Mr Peter Fox the curator was able to supply both more of the story and some wonderful earlier images including this delightful advert dating from March 30 1867

Reverse of a photograph, circa 1890s

“ADVERT : R. BANKS, PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO, UPPERMILL
R. Banks respectfully informs the Public that he has now opened a Photographic Studio at Uppermill, Saddleworth - Open daily from 9 till dusk.****

I wondered at how Robert Banks had managed to set himself up given his earlier occupation but it appears he had joined a photographic club drew on their advice and I guess either borrowed or saved for his first camera.

So I shall leave you with this early Banks photograph from  Uppermill, and promise you more.

Picture; courtesy of Saddleworth Museum, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/





*Robert Banks, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Robert%20Banks

**Manchester From the Robert Banks Collection, James Stanhope-Brown, 2011, the History Press

***Saddleworth Museum,

****Oldham Chronicle

The picture …. the municipal venture ….. and half a mystery solved

Here is a picture I keep coming back to.

At the Electricity showrooms, undated

It is a popular one which keeps cropping up on social media and was recently reposted by my Facebook chum, Christopher Roman.

Alas I have never been able to track a date or a source for the image, but the design of the building and the fashions on display would suggest the 1930s.

This was still the height of municipal socialism which saw local authorities continue to advance their responsibilities in a range of activities.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the absence of much from central government it was local politicians who were making their towns and cities better places to live.  As Sidney Webb said the “municipalities have done most to socialize our industrial life.” *

And so a resident of Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow could benefit from municipal supplies of water, gas and electricity, travel on municipally owned trams and buses walk through a municipally maintained park while knowing his children were being educated in municipally run schools.

Electricity Supply Box, 1915

“Glasgow builds and maintains seven public ‘common lodging houses’; Liverpool provides science lectures; Manchester builds and stocks an art gallery; Birmingham runs schools of design; Leeds creates extensive cattle markets; and Bradford supplies water below cost price. 

There are nearly one hundred free libraries and reading rooms. The minor services now performed by public bodies are innumerable.”*

And chief amongst those was the growing push to provide affordable gas and electrical fires, cookers and a range or household appliances which were promoted through local authority showrooms and supported by municipally run classes on how to cook with gas and electricity.

But the "City of Leicester Electricity Service" remained elusive ….. until last night when Tina turned up the story in a matter of minutes eclipsing my long practised historical skills.

It was all there in an article entitled City Hall, from the Story of Leicester.**

I have no intention of lifting other people’s research and so instead if you want to know the history of the service just follow the link.

Electricity Joan? 1938

Not that I am any closer to finding the date or the source, but I think it will be sometime after 1935 when the newly opened "Municipal Offices housed the Leicester Corporation Electricity Department (later the East Midland Electricity Board) and were specially furnished with a model kitchen for 'housewives who are interested in the modern uses of electricity in the home'. 

Exhibition Model Of All-Electric Kitchen, 1935

A special theatre also presented weekly cookery demonstrations and a Service Centre displayed, sold and hired out electrical appliances".**

Added to which I guess the picture comes from promotional material issued by the City Council.

Shopping for the new, date unknown

Now that is almost the end of the story but not quite, because after an appeal on the Leicester Old and New site and before Tina’s discovery a heap of people suggested the location for the offices as Charles Street.***

And that placed it almost opposite the air b&b we stayed at in January on one of our visits to see our Josh and Polly.

So as they say ….. it really is a very small world and armed with my newly acquired knowledge I will go and stand outside City Hall next time we are in Leicester.

Pictures; City of Leicester Electricity Service, source, and date unknown Manchester Corporation Electricity Works Supply box, circa 1915, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, advert from Manchester Electric Supply and picture of an all-electric kitchen 1935, Manchester Corporation

*Webb, Sidney, from Historic, Fabian Essays in Socialism 1889

**City Hall, Story of Leicester, https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/city-hall/

***Leciester Old and New, https://www.facebook.com/groups/483822492579736/?multi_permalinks=855570792071569&notif_id=1691096569147245&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

A lost Chorlton bottle ….. the Beech Road offi ……… and a trip back to a Dickensian Manchester

It started with the find of a broken bottle in a garden on Wilton Road.

The lost and found bottle, 2023

My friend Declan wrote “Hi Andrew. Neighbours have builders in digging trenches for an extension. They unearthed an old glass bottle, possibly discarded when the houses were being built in the 1890’s?”

The shop on Beech Road, 1900s

It carries the name Mason and Burrows.

Now, I can date the house to between 1894 and 1903 when the property was occupied by a William Simpson.

And it may just be possible that he or a subsequent resident bought the bottle from a branch of Mason and Burrows “grocers & wine & spirit Merchants”.*

In 1895 they had shops on Moss Lane, Great Western Street and  Moss Lane East, and by 1911 had expanded further south to Stockport Road, 23 Wilbraham Road and 46 Beech Road.

The romantic un historian bit of me would like the bottle to have come from the Beech Road offi, which continued selling beer, wine, and tobacco into the 2000s before opening as "Espicerie Ludo, Wine Merchant and Fine Groceries”.

And as you do, I went looking for them.  So far, I have tracked them back to 1886 to Sun Entry, which was a small street off Cock Pit Hill and Bull’s Head Yard which was part of a warren of narrow streets and closed courts bounded by Corporation Street, Market Place and Market Street.

Sun Entry, 1886

They had a Dickensian feel, and non-more so that Sun Entry which snaked down from Cock Pitt Hill towards Market Street becoming progressively narrower till it ended as an enclosed passageway.

The area was already in existence by 1793 and elements show up on Tinker’s map a full 21 years earlier.

There will be a few people who remember the area before its demolition in the late 1960s which was replaced by that modernistic complex which included the Marks and Spencer store with its wavey canopy.

I wish I had known that older Manchester and walked the alleys’ and entrances.

In the 1880s Mason and Burrows occupied a large premises which fronted both Bulls’s Head Yard and Sun Entry and may have shared the “arched beer cellars” which extended down to the small and equally narrow Hopewood Avenue.

Sun Entry from Cock Pitt Hill, 1910

There is more but I suspect the historic record is not up to revealing the secret of the number on the base of the bottle which was 1302. It may be a reference to a batch or to one of the products they sold.

Bottle bottom with a number, 2023

But unless we can have access to one of their catalogues, I fear that number 1302 will remain in the shadows.

Still, I like the way that on a sunny day in Chorlton the story took us back into the late 18th century in one of those lost and now largely forgotten bits of the city.

Location; Wilton Road, Sun Entry and Bulls Head Yard

Pictures; the lost Mason and Burrows bottle 2023, Mason Burrrows shop, Beech Road circa 1900s Sun Entry, 1886, from Goad’s Fire Insurance Maps, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and Sun Entry, from Cock Pit Hill, City Engineers, 1902,and in 1944, City Planners 05914, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Sun Entry narrows towards, Market Street, 1944

* Mason and Burrows, Slater’s Manchester & Salford Directory, 1895

Lost Woolwich .......... no 4 a football team

Now of all the places I knew in my youth I have to say Woolwich is one of those that has  undergone some of the most radical change.

So much so that big chunks of it I have difficulty recognising.

The Arsenal, Powis Street and even the old Pie and Mash shop were as familiar to me as they were to generations of people who grew up in Woolwich and are now just distant memories.

So with that in mind I have returned to images of a time before now.

And so here for those in my family like Geoff who follows Charlton, the odd couple who watch Millwall and Colin and Lee who travel over the river is that local football team from 1905.

Picture; from Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, Amberley 2014

That amazing Mr Banks ....... his pictures and other practitioners of his trade

Now I remain fascinated by what can turn up in an old cupboard, under the floor boards or in this case the family picture album.

And for what follows I have my old friend Oliver Bailey to thank, who having read the story on the photographer, Robert Banks, sent up a selection of the trade cards which accompanied some of the family pictures.

Oliver told me that "glancing through your blog on I saw the name Banks, which rang a bell as he was one of many that took photos of different branches of the family and I attach copies of mountings he used plus a list of all the practitioners of the art that the family used".

All of which was a find indeed.

Mr Banks was born in 1847, his father was a journeyman carpenter, and at fifteen he was employed as a woollen piercer in Upper Mill.  At the age of twenty he was an illustrated artist working for the Oldham Chronicle and in 1867 had set up as a photographer in the High Street at Uppermill.

From there he set up in Manchester, was employed to take family photographs, and went out on to the streets of the city to record what he saw.

He was commissioned by the Corporation in 1878 to photograph a series of pictures of the newly opened Town Hall and went on to compile sets of albums including the opening of the Ship Canal, the unveiling of Queen Victoria’s statue, and King Edward’s visit in 1909.

The mountings on the back of Oliver’s family photographs record the growing success of Mr Banks who by degree began opening studios across the city and beyond including Blackpool.

Along with these cards, Oliver provided a list of 35 other photographers, many of whom were working outside Manchester and include places ranging from Todmorden, Southport, Rochdale, Pendleton, Halifax and Burnley.

At which point I will have to go back to Oliver and enquire as to how so many far flung photographers were snapping the family.  I suppose the explanation for some like Southport, Hollingworth Lakes, and Douglas in the Isle of Man will be holiday opportunities, But Sierra Leone will throw up a story.

The list is a treasure trove, because it offers the chance to pursue the careers of each of these picture takers.
I know the Manchester ones will be there in the local directories which I have but the ‘out of town’ ones are all new to me and over time I will pursue them.

Just leaving me to thank Oliver, whose family farmed in Chorlton from the 1760s.

Location; everywhere






Pictures, trade cards from Robert Banks, late 19th, early 20th centuries, from the collection of Oliver Bailey